Our People

Get to know the ISL Family

The Institute’s staff and associates combine a wide diversity of private and public sector experience from within Australasia and abroad, as well as academic credentials. This enables the team to provide clients with flexible, tailored executive and organisational development solutions, underpinned by credibility and reputation.

Leadership Team

Geoff Lorigan

FOUNDER & DIRECTOR

CHAIR CLASS & CE CLASS facilitation

First 100 day coaching for CEOs and senior executives taking up new positions

Geoff Lorigan is the founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic Leadership and Adjunct Professor of Leadership at Queensland University of Technology (Science & Engineering Faculty).

Geoff’s previous roles at the Institute include: Programme Director of the Strategic Leadership Programme for CEOs and Senior Executives at Millbrook in Queenstown, and at the Institute’s campuses in Brisbane (Australia) and St Andrews (Scotland). He was previously Associate Dean at the University of Auckland, and Director of the University of Otago Advanced Business Programme. He was also the Director of The Auckland MBA and The Otago MBA and held Professor of Strategy appointments at both universities.

Prior to embarking on his university and strategic leadership development career, Geoff held four CEO roles (two in London and two in New Zealand).

Qualifications: MBA; MSc; PhD: FNZIM; MIoD

Accreditation: TMS, FIRO B, MBTI®, NLP

John Wadsworth

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Supporting CEOs build high performing Executive Leadership Teams

SmartLeader Apps Specialist

John is an ISL alumnus and has attended the LP, SLP, and ISL| MBA. He was previously the Executive Dean of a Business School for the last seven years and prior to that he was CEO of a commercial council-owned enterprise. During that time, John was seconded to the Auckland Transition Agency as part of the team that designed and implemented New Zealand’s largest merger to form the Auckland Council. John has also held several national body Chair and Board roles.

His academic qualifications include two degrees from the University of Canterbury (Economics and Business) and recently completed an MBA from the University of Otago. John has also attended an executive program at Melbourne Business School.

Qualifications: BC Economics. and Business, MBA

Gareth Lorigan

PROGRAMMES DIRECTOR

Executive Coach

High Performing Team Specialist

SmartLeader Apps Specialist

Gareth is a the Programme Director of the Strategic Leadership and Team Leadership residential programmes. In between programmes, he is actively involved facilitating Team Dynamic and Team Performance workshops, on-going coaching, and providing client services and support.

Gareth has completed the ISL | MBA, and the ISL Leadership Programme, and is currently studying for a Masters in Leadership at Deakin University. He completed his executive coaches training and accreditation at the Institute for Executive coaching and Leadership (Sydney).

Graham helps leaders translate the words of “People are our greatest asset” into meaningful reality by earning employees understanding, trust and commitment to deliver impressive results. His goal is for people to bring the same energy, creativity and fulfilment to their work as they do to their personal passions.

Andrew McFadden

Leadership Team Development – Building High Performing Teams

Individual Leadership Development – Coaching For CEO’s And Senior Executives

Facilitating Workshops With Executive Teams

Workshop facilitation

Andrew McFadden is an Executive Leadership Coach for the Institute for Strategic Leadership and works on both the Leadership Programme and the Strategic Leadership Programme. He also designs and delivers customised leadership development workshops for ISL clients.

Andrew is an executive education specialist having worked across the corporate, not-for-profit and education sectors both in Australia and New Zealand.

Qualifications: Bachelor of International Business Relations (B.Int.Bus)

Accreditations: TMS, FIRO-B, MBTI®, JRA 360, Hogan Assessments.

Amanda Woolridge

Executive Coaching

Team Coaching

Workshop Facilitation

Leadership Development

Amanda is an Executive Leadership Coach for the Institute for Strategic Leadership and works on both the Strategic Leadership and Leadership Programmes.

Amanda has coached Executives, GM’s and Middle Managers throughout New Zealand, Australia and the UK since 2000. Amanda is accredited in MBTI, FIRO B, DiSC and a number of other tools to support leaders to build awareness, improve communication and increase staff engagement.

Amanda is an alumnus of the ISL Leadership Programme.

Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Psychology

Accreditations: CoachU Grad MBTI®, FIRO B, DiSC, NLP

Heidi Parlane

Executive Coaching

Team Coaching

Workshop Facilitation

Heidi has a passion for helping individuals, teams and organisations to thrive, grow and perform. She works with a wide range of senior leaders and executives in the private and public sector, helping people gain the clarity and insights they need to take action and make positive changes to reach their goals.

Heidi is an experienced facilitator and coach with significant experience at executive level in Operations and Human Resource Management. She is an alumnus of the ISL Leadership Programme.

Kristy Meates

Executive Coaching

Team Coaching

Workshop Facilitation

Coaching the Coach

Kristy is a graduate of the Institutes’ Leadership Programme and a member of the coaching team. She has an extensive background in policing with over eight years at senior management level, worked as a coach both in NZ and Australia, has a wide generalist HR and organizational development background including ER and is passionate about impact of leadership at every level.

Barry Denham

Executive Coaching

Leadership Development

Team Coaching

Workshop Facilitation

Barry is a graduate of the Institutes’ Leadership Programme and a member of the coaching team. His coaching and leadership development capability is built on a platform of business and leadership experience from working with leading organisations in the public and private sector over 15 years in a variety of roles such as Solicitor, Educator and Senior Manager.

Kym Lincolne

Kym Lincolne has been a director and principal consultant in leadership development consulting for the past 10 years. Previous to that, Kym was a founding leader in an international cognitive behavioural safety organisation.

She has worked with thousands of leaders in specialised programs in areas such as self and social awareness, resilience, advanced communication, merging leadership, diversity of thought and team dynamics.

Kym has designed full scale leadership programs, created online learning platforms for leaders and coached extensively at the senior leader level.

Kym is an ISL alumni, associate coach and facilitator for the Institute.

LeaderLAB Team

Steph Twomey

Steph is a psychology graduate from the University of Nottingham. She began her career at ISL managing Team Workshops and is now responsible for the management of the SLP, LP and AMP.

Steph is also the team leader at the LeaderLAB in Auckland CBD, is an Enterprise Performance Specialist for SmartLeader Apps, and is a key contributor to the R&D team.

Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Psychology (with International Study)

Sythey Russell

Sythey is a recent psychology graduate from the University of Nottingham. She is an Account Manager for SmartLeader Apps, specialising in the commercialisation of the SmartLeader Apps suite of tools at the individual, team and multi-team level.

Her responsibilities include liaising between clients and the development team to solve complex challenges and promptly deliver a customised, reliable solution.

Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Psychology (with International Study)

Lucy Mclennan

Lucy is a psychology graduate from the University of Nottingham who has recently joined the team after teaching English as a foreign language in Cambodia. Based in the LeaderLAB, Lucy manages the logistics for Team Performance Workshops and is involved with the SmartLeader Apps digital workshop team.